Vintage HOT ROD Covers - The Firsts

Today's HOT ROD staffers are humbled by the heritage of the brand we work for. All we do, all we dream of, and every word we write is in the shadow of the hot rodders, racers, editors, staffers, and photographers who preceded us. They just lived the job and the hobby they loved, but in the process, they created and documented the sociology of hot rodding.

2/33<strong>Jan '48: The First HOT ROD</strong><br />If you're a hot rodder, it's hard to have missed the tale of Robert E. Petersen and Bob Lindsay founding this magazine in conjunction with the Southern California Timing Association's Hot Rod Exposition, the first rod show ever, held at the Los Angeles Armory. Lee Blaisdell shot the first cover with Eddie Hulse sitting in Regg Schlemmer's dry-lakes-racing T roadster.

For five years following its introduction in January 1948, HOT ROD stood alone as the bugle of an automotive underground that quickly grew into a nationwide rage, largely due to the reach of the magazine. HRM therefore created its own competition as the hobby's popularity spawned a number of other pubs, some from within its own publishing company. Yet HOT ROD was and is the largest. It's been a target for niche titles that dive deeper into specific subject matters, and has often been less hip than its offspring, but HOT ROD has always been unique in its ability to cover the breadth of the motorhead hobby with tentacles that have probed the evolution of fashion and technology for everything from hot rods and race cars to customs, Jeeps, dune buggies, import cars, boats, motorcycles, and vans. As a result, viewing HOT ROD in retrospect reveals the curve of trends since the hobby began.

As insiders, we have almost daily exposure to the nuances of the hot rodding timeline presented through the eyes of bygone HOT ROD staffers. Since that legacy is more revered today than ever, we decided to show you the hobby's moments of change as illustrated by the single page of HRM that has always represented what the editors considered to be the hottest and most timely subjects. That most important of pages is, of course, the cover. Follow along as we trace the "firsts" of HOT ROD magazine covers of the '40s and '50s.

Other Firsts

33/33<strong>All the Covers, The Book</strong><br />Motorbooks International Inc. has published a book that contains every single cover of HOT ROD from 1948 through Nov. '09. Each cover is accompanied by notes by author Drew Hardin, a former HOT ROD editor, that include insights from many editorial staffers past and present. Even if you own every issue ever printed, the book is still must-have material. It's $35 or less from Amazon.com and can be found at most major booksellers.

Jan. '48: First mention of a car manufacturer, Mercury.Feb. '48: The first street-legal hot rod, also the first '32 Ford roadster.Apr. '48: The first nonproduction car, Stuart Hilborn's streamliner.Feb. '49: First mention of Chevy (with a second one the following month).May '49: The first female on the cover, also the first one with a posed driveway scene.Sept. '49: First mention of Ford; in the early days, Ford was a given. Also the first cover with multiple images.July '50: First mention of Pontiac.Dec. '50: First spot color on the cover car. This was a black-and-white photo with red on the car only.June '51: The first airplane on the cover along with Harvey Haller's roadster at Van Nuys Airport. There was also a story, "Hot Rods in the Sky."May '52: First mention of Jeep.June '52: The first overhead-cam engine, an Offy. Also the first four-banger.July '52: First mention of Nash Rambler.Aug. '52: First mention of Studebaker.Oct. '52: The first supercharged engine, a Frenzel flathead Ford.May '53: The first Chevy engine, the first pushrod engine, and the first inline-six, all in one.June '53: The first '40 Ford; actually the first fat-fendered car of any kind. Also the first use of the term sports car.Oct. '53: The first Jimmy six and the first mention of GMC, Dodge, and Kaiser.Dec. '53: The first Chevy car, a small inset photo of a custom. Also the first mentions of foreign countries: Mexico and Britain.Apr. '54: The first Ford engine that was not a flathead: an OHV '53 inline-six.June '55: The first turbine engine, that of an Indy car assembled by hobbyists within the Air Force Strategic Air Command in Nebraska. This was also the first Indy racer on the cover.Aug. '55: First mention of Packard.Dec. '55: First mention of Lincoln (though Zephyr had been used earlier).May '56: First mention of Plymouth and of NASCAR and Daytona.July '56: First mention of Thunderbirds.Oct. '56: First mention of Corvette, and the first Mercury car (as HRM was not heavy into customs, there were no restyled Mercs so far).Nov. '56: First mention of Willys.Jan. '57: First '55 Chevys (two of 'em), also the first Chevy cars of any kind.Apr. '57: First mention of Volkswagen.July '57: First mention of Ranchero.Oct. '57: First mention of Edsel.July '58: First mention of Olds.Dec. '58: First '57 Chevy.Sept. '59: A photo of the Stoke-Davis car marks the first dragster that we'd call a rail; it was the first on the cover that did not have a full body.